While it isn't exactly a given just yet, it seems as though more mobile devices than ever are getting on-board with the Qi wireless charging standard. And as the number of devices that are compatible grows, so does the number of charging accessories. Google sells its own Nexus Wireless Charger for $49, but a handful of other manufacturers are coming in under that price with their own offerings.
RAVPower is one of the latest, and its $39 charger is now available on Amazon trying to make a case for its existence among the many other players. Hang with us after the break to take a quick look at this new Qi charger.
Amazon only just released a new Kindle Paperwhite e-reader two months ago, but we're already hearing rumors that a newer model is on the way. According to a new report from TechCrunch, the new version, to be released in early Q2 of next year, will boast a sharper 300-pixel-per-inch screen, allowing it to better compete with models like the Kobo Aura, which has a 265-ppi screen. (Not that Kobo's represents much of a threat to Amazon's book-selling empire.) Also it's worth noting that E Ink makes the displays for basically all these e-readers, so it seems unlikely that Amazon would hold an exclusive on a 300-ppi panel -- at least not for long.
Additionally, TechCrunch claims the new Paperwhite will have a lighter design that mimics the new Kindle FireHDX tablets, with chamfered edges, a rear power button and a glass screen that sits flush with the bezels. The device is also rumored to have haptic feedback along the edges, which will give vibrating feedback when you do things like move to the next page. There's no big software update planned, apparently, although Amazon is said to be working on a new custom font that's more conducive to marathon reading sessions. We suppose if this report is true, all will be revealed over the coming months -- hopefully those of you who just bought a new Paperwhite won't be too cheesed off by the timing.
Zoho has added a series of features to its CRM (customer relationship management) software in a bid to appeal to larger companies as well as lure away customers from the likes of Salesforce.com.
In some respects, the Zoho update amounts to the company catching up to Salesforce.com and others rather than showcasing truly new innovations.
Zoho CRM Enterprise now includes improved territory management, allowing customers to be broken up by factors such as geographic area and revenue, allowing sales teams to hone their efforts around specific groups of prospects. In addition, Zoho has added the ability to run sales forecasts according to geography.
Larger companies with multiple divisions and lines of business may also need more than a standard set of CRM modules. To meet this need, Zoho CRM Enterprise now includes the ability to create custom modules that are compatible with the standard set.
Zoho has also taken a page from Salesforce.com by integrating customer Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles directly inside the Zoho CRM interface. Salespeople and customer support representatives can keep an eye on the social streams, looking for signs of discontent, then respond directly to the person offering help, said Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist for Zoho.
Other improvements include better integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns.
The updates are available now. Zoho CRM Enterprise costs $35 per user per month, a price that significantly undercuts Salesforce.com's Enterprise package, which runs $125 per month.
Salesforce.com and its adherents may argue there's no straight comparison to be made between it and Zoho. But Zoho is nonetheless finding success for its CRM, with more than 40,000 paying customers, according to Vegesna. Between 10 percent and 20 percent are using the Enterprise edition, and Zoho is completing about 30 migrations per day to its system, "typically from Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics," he claimed.
Zoho's announcement comes just days before Salesforce.com kicks off its annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, and days after SugarCRM also announced a major update to its product.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com
Across the nation, Americans are commemorating Veterans Day with parades, wreath-laying ceremonies, monument dedications and other events.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE: GREEN PASTURES
Richard Velez is a veteran who makes it clear: He didn't serve in a war, but he welcomed home family and friends — brothers all — who had seen "the beast" that is combat.
At the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, Velez joined hundreds of others on Veterans Day. Velez, a 51-year-old from Dover who served with the Army from 1980-86, rode to the peaceful patch of land along the Merrimack River with a Vietnam vets motorcycle club.
"This is a place of brokenness," he said. "Just being here, you find that peace that you're looking for, that you need. And you feel less broken."
Veterans — those who have seen combat and those who haven't — take special solace in the cemetery's green expanses, he said. They find their connection in the orderly rows of headstones that remember comrades from the Civil War to the present.
"It's the brotherhood," he said. "We never rest because of the beast we've seen. And once you've seen the beast, you can't unsee it."
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VIRGINIA: ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
President Barack Obama paid tribute to those who have served in the nation's military, including one of the nation's oldest veterans, 107-year-old Richard Overton.
"This is the life of one American veteran, living proud and strong in the land he helped keep free," Obama said during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Overton was among those in the audience for the outdoor ceremony on a crisp, sun-splashed Veteran's Day. Earlier in the day, Overton and other veterans attended a breakfast at the White House.
Obama used his remarks to remind the nation that thousands of service members are still at war in Afghanistan. The war is expected to formally conclude at the end of next year, though the U.S. may keep a small footprint in the country.
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NEVADA: LAMENTING BUDGET CUTS
The Las Vegas parade, billed as the largest Veterans Day parade west of the Mississippi, took Nellis Air Force Base as its theme after government cuts led to cancellation of an air show there.
Floats featured zooming planes and trails of exhaust, and contingents of Air Force personnel and trainees marched in powder blue uniforms at intervals during the procession.
Retired Air Force mechanic Mark Goldstom, 51, took his 14 year-old son to see the air show last year but spent Monday watching the parade from a lawn chair downtown.
"You don't have the airplanes, the smell and things that you would at an airshow, but it's still great," he said.
Goldstom was more disturbed about the reason the air show was canceled this year.
"In my opinion, they shouldn't cut any military or vet spending," he said. "That's the last thing they should cut."
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OKLAHOMA: A WALL OF HEALING
A retired Air Force colonel who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war says a new permanent wall commemorating Vietnam veterans in Enid will offer healing, love and unity.
Col. Lee Ellis was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the Woodring Wall of Honor and Veterans Park at Woodring Regional Airport in Enid. The wall had been part of a traveling exhibit but will now become Oklahoma's official memorial to those who served in the Vietnam War. The wall is a smaller replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington.
Ellis was a Vietnam prisoner of war with Arizona Sen. John McCain. He says the wall will help ensure that the men and women who served are never forgotten.
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NEW YORK: REMEMBERING 9/11
The memory of the Sept. 11 attacks surfaced at New York City's Veterans Day parade, with families of World Trade Center victims carrying a giant American flag along Fifth Avenue amid shouts of "Don't forget 9/11."
"When I was first elected mayor, there was still smoke rising from the World Trade Center site," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a pre-parade wreath-laying ceremony. "And that was a very difficult time, when men and women in the armed forces were stepping up to confront new threats to ensure our safety."
Organizers called the New York celebration, which has been renamed America's Parade, the nation's largest Veterans Day event.
___
WASHINGTON, D.C.: TUSKEGEE AIRMEN
Two of the original Tuskegee Airmen joined Washington, D.C., leaders for a Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony.
William Fauntroy Jr. and Major Louis Anderson, both of Washington, were honored during Monday's ceremony at the city's African American Civil War Memorial and Museum.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the district in Congress, presented Anderson with a bronze replica of the Tuskegee Airmen's Congressional Gold Medal.
The 88-year-old Anderson was part of the ground support service for the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who fought in World War II.
Fauntroy was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. He is the brother of Walter Fauntroy, Norton's predecessor as the district's delegate to Congress.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Rik Stevens in Boscawen, N.H.; Stacy A. Anderson in Arlington, Va.; Hannah Dreier in Las Vegas; Kristi Eaton in Enid, Okla.; Verena Dobnik in New York; and Ben Nuckols in Washington.
All fighters have made weight for ONE Fight Championships’ ONE FC 12 fight card which takes place tomorrow at the Stadium Putra in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There was a late change however as Vitor Pinto failed to clear his pre-fight medical tests and his scheduled bout against Nobutatsu Suzuki was scratched. A catchweight bout between Adriano Moraes and Yusup Saadulaev now headlines the ONE FC 12 fight card.
Looks like the NSA isn't the only one using dirty digital tricks to hack its targets. Allied spy agencies abroad are using the same (black) bag of tools.
According to reports published by German magazine Der Spiegel, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the U.K. equivalent to the NSA, spoofed LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to break into the computers of network engineers who worked for global roaming exchange providers in Europe. The fake sites planted malware on the victims' systems, which in turn would gain access to the voice and data routers at the telecoms where the victims worked.
The technique used to spoof the websites, dubbed "Quantum Insert" by the NSA, was also employed in the past by that agency to attack users of the Tor anonymous-browsing network. According to Bruce Schneier, the trick involves relying on the NSA's widely discussed but still shadowy "secret partnerships with U.S. telecom companies."
A spoof server (code-named "Fox Acid"), which can respond faster than the real one, is placed somewhere on the Internet backbone. If the victim tries to browse the real site, traffic is silently redirected to the fake one and hacking ensues. What's more, attacks can be fine-tuned to specific victims -- by exploiting sensitive information that had been shared pre-emptively with the NSA.
Hacking a telecom treasure trove Why hack into roaming exchange providers? Such outfits, like Begium's Belgacom, are treasure troves of data about mobile voice and data connections across Europe -- an obvious plum for picking by any intelligence agency. Belgacom provides Internet and telecom for all the EU's official institutions, so it wouldn't be surprising to learn that American spy efforts in Europe (like the surveillance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone) have been aided by such hacks.
And in another operation, the GCHQ targeted clearinghouse companies that perform mobile billing and administration for mobile operators. Such companies include Mach of Luxembourg (now owned by Syniverse of Tampa, Fla.) or Comfone, based in Bern, Switzerland.
Attacking a third-party clearinghouse company to steal personal data is a technique that's been used quite successfully by conventional criminal hackers -- see the Russian gang SSNDOB when it broke into LexisNexis and the National White Collar Crime Center -- so it's not surprising to see spy agencies using the same tactic.
Belgacom has reported in the past that something fishy might well have been going on in its data centers. In October the company reported there had been unauthorized changes to one of its routers, and a month before it claimed to have found a previously unidentified virus lurking in its internal network.
What's troubling is that anything the NSA can do can, in theory, be done just as easily -- and maybe even more undetectably -- by a rogue attacker. To that end, Schneier is convinced that the more such attack methods are made public, the tougher they will be to pull off and the safer we'll all be.
"Yes, [full disclosure of such methods] would make it harder to eavesdrop on the bad guys," Schneier writes, "but it would make everyone on the internet safer. If we believe in protecting our critical infrastructure from foreign attack, if we believe in protecting internet users from repressive regimes worldwide, and if we believe in defending businesses and ourselves from cybercrime, then doing otherwise is lunacy."
Play promotes emotional healing in children battling serious illnesses
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
5-Nov-2013
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Contact: Dawn Fuller dawn.fuller@uc.edu 513-556-1823 University of Cincinnati
New research finds that chronically ill children celebrate a successful recovery. It's through their imaginative play with medically themed toys. Laura Nabors, an associate professor of human services in the University of Cincinnati College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH), will present new research on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at the American Public Health Association's (APHA) 141st Annual Meeting and Expo in Boston.
The project primarily focused on chronically ill children and their siblings who were staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Cincinnati. The children were provided with medically themed toys such as stethoscopes, miniature hospital beds, ambulances, doctors' bags and intravenous (IV) lines, as well as head and arm casts.
The UC researchers would observe the children at play, up to two times a month. They found that through play, the children were working through fears and expressing a full recovery.
"No one in the dramatizations died, but in some cases, siblings would want to be sick, too, so that they could receive attention from their parents," says Nabors.
Other findings from the service research found that children were fearful of having blood drawn believing that it was something that was taken away, Nabors says, and not aware that the body replenishes its blood supply. "Some children dramatized their stories by depicting doctors as being evil," says Nabors, adding that play might be an avenue for opening up communication about fears between medical professionals, parents and very young patients.
The researchers also found that in observing the children in play settings, "patients" in the children's dramatizations often called for parental support, indicating that children heavily relied on their parents in coping with their illness.
The project focused on:
15 children with medical illnesses
14 siblings of children with a medical illness
6 children in a comparison group of all family members in good health
The children, between 2 and 10 years old, were videotaped (with cameras recording only hands and toy arrangements) in at least one of seven different weekend play sessions at a Ronald McDonald House where the children with illnesses and siblings of children with illnesses were living.
Three of the children were awaiting surgery to address birth defects; two were having surgeries related to craniofacial anomalies; five were planning intestinal surgery; two had cancer; one child was awaiting a kidney transplant; one child was awaiting multiple procedures to address Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (a rare condition resulting in immune deficiency); and one child was awaiting multiple surgeries related to Mitochondrial Disease (which results in neuromuscular disease).
The researchers also observed 14 siblings (7 boys and 7 girls) of children with chronic illnesses who were living in the Ronald McDonald House. The siblings ranged from 3-to-10 years old.
Nabors says that among siblings, there were instances when their play indicated that they felt "left out" of the attention of their parents as they focused on their child who was ill.
These instances included expressions of loneliness and needs for attention. However, play among both the chronically ill and the play of the siblings would end with stories of a successful recovery.
"I really believe that young children are marked for resilience and that will be explored in our future research," says Nabors.
In addition, a comparison group of 6 children (3 boys and 3 girls) ages 6-to-8 children of families who had no chronically ill children participated in the study. "Their play was dramatically different, without rich play experiences and themes indicating that they were working through traumatic experiences," says Nabors.
###
The service-research project was a partnership among the UC School of Human Services and Cincinnati's Ronald McDonald House.
Other researchers on the project were Kenneth Woodson, a UC doctoral student in health promotion and education; Jennifer Bartz, a recent graduate of UC's psychology program (McMicken College of Arts and Sciences); Rebecca Elkins, a UC graduate student in health promotion and education; and Rebecca Sievers, a graduate student in the UC counseling program.
The presentation follows an article on the research that was published in the September issue of the journal, Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing.
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Play promotes emotional healing in children battling serious illnesses
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
5-Nov-2013
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| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Dawn Fuller dawn.fuller@uc.edu 513-556-1823 University of Cincinnati
New research finds that chronically ill children celebrate a successful recovery. It's through their imaginative play with medically themed toys. Laura Nabors, an associate professor of human services in the University of Cincinnati College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH), will present new research on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at the American Public Health Association's (APHA) 141st Annual Meeting and Expo in Boston.
The project primarily focused on chronically ill children and their siblings who were staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Cincinnati. The children were provided with medically themed toys such as stethoscopes, miniature hospital beds, ambulances, doctors' bags and intravenous (IV) lines, as well as head and arm casts.
The UC researchers would observe the children at play, up to two times a month. They found that through play, the children were working through fears and expressing a full recovery.
"No one in the dramatizations died, but in some cases, siblings would want to be sick, too, so that they could receive attention from their parents," says Nabors.
Other findings from the service research found that children were fearful of having blood drawn believing that it was something that was taken away, Nabors says, and not aware that the body replenishes its blood supply. "Some children dramatized their stories by depicting doctors as being evil," says Nabors, adding that play might be an avenue for opening up communication about fears between medical professionals, parents and very young patients.
The researchers also found that in observing the children in play settings, "patients" in the children's dramatizations often called for parental support, indicating that children heavily relied on their parents in coping with their illness.
The project focused on:
15 children with medical illnesses
14 siblings of children with a medical illness
6 children in a comparison group of all family members in good health
The children, between 2 and 10 years old, were videotaped (with cameras recording only hands and toy arrangements) in at least one of seven different weekend play sessions at a Ronald McDonald House where the children with illnesses and siblings of children with illnesses were living.
Three of the children were awaiting surgery to address birth defects; two were having surgeries related to craniofacial anomalies; five were planning intestinal surgery; two had cancer; one child was awaiting a kidney transplant; one child was awaiting multiple procedures to address Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (a rare condition resulting in immune deficiency); and one child was awaiting multiple surgeries related to Mitochondrial Disease (which results in neuromuscular disease).
The researchers also observed 14 siblings (7 boys and 7 girls) of children with chronic illnesses who were living in the Ronald McDonald House. The siblings ranged from 3-to-10 years old.
Nabors says that among siblings, there were instances when their play indicated that they felt "left out" of the attention of their parents as they focused on their child who was ill.
These instances included expressions of loneliness and needs for attention. However, play among both the chronically ill and the play of the siblings would end with stories of a successful recovery.
"I really believe that young children are marked for resilience and that will be explored in our future research," says Nabors.
In addition, a comparison group of 6 children (3 boys and 3 girls) ages 6-to-8 children of families who had no chronically ill children participated in the study. "Their play was dramatically different, without rich play experiences and themes indicating that they were working through traumatic experiences," says Nabors.
###
The service-research project was a partnership among the UC School of Human Services and Cincinnati's Ronald McDonald House.
Other researchers on the project were Kenneth Woodson, a UC doctoral student in health promotion and education; Jennifer Bartz, a recent graduate of UC's psychology program (McMicken College of Arts and Sciences); Rebecca Elkins, a UC graduate student in health promotion and education; and Rebecca Sievers, a graduate student in the UC counseling program.
The presentation follows an article on the research that was published in the September issue of the journal, Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing.
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| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela was amused by the elaborate makeup process a British actor went through to play him in a film based on his autobiography, the movie's producer said Saturday of a special screening for the former South African president last year.
"Is that me?" Anant Singh, the South African producer of "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," recalled a smiling Mandela as saying when he saw a picture of actor Idris Elba as an elderly version of the man who spent 27 years in jail under white minority rule. After he was freed, Mandela led South Africa through a difficult transition to its first racially inclusive elections in 1994, a historic event that propelled him to the presidency and inspired many around the world.
"I said, 'Madiba, you really think it's you?'" Singh replied, using Mandela's clan name. He then explained that Elba sat through more than five hours of makeup before filming even began. Singh had visited Mandela at his home in Qunu, in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. Mandela, 95, has stayed in a hospital in Pretoria, the capital, several times since December and remains critically ill at his Johannesburg home.
Singh and members of the cast spoke at a news conference in Johannesburg Saturday hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation for the film, which is based on Mandela's autobiography and will be released in South Africa in late November before opening in the U.S. and other markets.
Naomie Harris, who starred in the James Bond movie "Skyfall," plays the role of Winnie Mandela, Mandela's second wife and a powerful figure in the anti-apartheid movement in her own right. The couple later divorced.
Zindzi Mandela, one of the couple's children, said she had seen the movie with her mother and that it was an emotional experience. Mandela, she said, is often defined by his prison experiences and his fight against apartheid, but she was pleased to see that the movie also focuses on the traditional values of hierarchy, structure and discipline that shaped him in his early years in the rural Eastern Cape.
"Those values are what made him better able to face challenges ahead of him," she said.
Zindzi Mandela said she was particularly moved by a film scene in which she and her sister are left alone, with both their parents in detention. She said the sequence evoked "the absence of a father and the absence of a mother and the absence of a normal family life."
Singh said Winnie, whose last name is now Madikizela-Mandela, turned to him after seeing the movie and said:
"It's beautiful. Don't change anything. I love it."
The $35 million film was directed by Justin Chadwick. It also features actor Tony Kgoroge, who played the role of a presidential security chief in "Invictus," the 2009 movie directed by Clint Eastwood that starred Morgan Freeman as Mandela in the period leading up to South Africa's World Cup rugby title in 1995. This time, Kgoroge plays Walter Sisulu, a longtime associate of Mandela.
Elba did not attend the news conference because he was ill. Kgoroge praised Elba's performance as Mandela, describing him as "very hungry" and "looking forward to going into the depth of his character."
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